xref: /openbsd/usr.bin/mandoc/man.conf.5 (revision 264ca280)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: man.conf.5,v 1.3 2015/03/27 21:17:16 schwarze Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 2015 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
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5.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
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17.Dd $Mdocdate: March 27 2015 $
18.Dt MAN.CONF 5
19.Os
20.Sh NAME
21.Nm man.conf
22.Nd configuration file for man
23.Sh DESCRIPTION
24This is the configuration file
25for the
26.Xr man 1 ,
27.Xr apropos 1 ,
28and
29.Xr makewhatis 8
30utilities.
31Its presence, and all directives, are optional.
32.Pp
33This file is an ASCII text file.
34Leading whitespace on lines, lines starting with
35.Sq # ,
36and blank lines are ignored.
37Words are separated by whitespace.
38The first word on each line is the name of a configuration directive.
39.Pp
40The following directives are supported:
41.Bl -tag -width Ds
42.It Ic manpath Ar path
43Override the default search
44.Ar path
45for
46.Xr man 1 ,
47.Xr apropos 1 ,
48and
49.Xr makewhatis 8 .
50It can be used multiple times to specify multiple paths,
51with the order determining the manual page search order.
52.Pp
53Each path is a tree containing subdirectories
54whose names consist of the strings
55.Sq man
56and/or
57.Sq cat
58followed by the names of sections, usually single digits.
59The former are supposed to contain unformatted manual pages in
60.Xr mdoc 7
61and/or
62.Xr man 7
63format; file names should end with the name of the section
64preceded by a dot.
65The latter should contain preformatted manual pages;
66file names should end with
67.Ql .0 .
68.Pp
69Creating a
70.Xr mandoc.db 5
71database with
72.Xr makewhatis 8
73in each directory configured with
74.Ic manpath
75is recommended and necessary for
76.Xr apropos 1
77to work, but not strictly required for
78.Xr man 1 .
79.It Ic output Ar option Op Ar value
80Configure the default value of an output option.
81These directives are overridden by the
82.Fl O
83command line options of the same names.
84For details, see the
85.Xr mandoc 1
86manual.
87.Pp
88.Bl -column fragment integer "ascii, utf8" -compact
89.It Ar option   Ta Ar value Ta used by Fl T Ta purpose
90.It Ta Ta Ta
91.It Ic fragment Ta none     Ta Cm html Ta print only body
92.It Ic includes Ta string   Ta Cm html Ta path to header files
93.It Ic indent   Ta integer  Ta Cm ascii , utf8 Ta left margin
94.It Ic man      Ta string   Ta Cm html Ta path for Xr links
95.It Ic paper    Ta string   Ta Cm ps , pdf Ta paper size
96.It Ic style    Ta string   Ta Cm html Ta CSS file
97.It Ic width    Ta integer  Ta Cm ascii , utf8 Ta right margin
98.El
99.It Ic _whatdb Ar path Ns Cm /whatis.db
100This directive provides the same functionality as
101.Ic manpath ,
102but using a historic and misleading syntax.
103It is kept for backward compatibility for now,
104but will eventually be removed.
105.El
106.Sh FILES
107.Pa /etc/man.conf
108.Sh EXAMPLES
109The following configuration file reproduces the defaults:
110installing it is equivalent to not having a
111.Nm
112file at all.
113.Bd -literal -offset indent
114manpath /usr/share/man
115manpath /usr/X11R6/man
116manpath /usr/local/man
117.Ed
118.Sh SEE ALSO
119.Xr apropos 1 ,
120.Xr man 1 ,
121.Xr makewhatis 8
122.Sh HISTORY
123A relatively complicated
124.Nm
125file format first appeared in
126.Bx 4.3 Reno .
127For
128.Ox 5.8 ,
129it was redesigned from scratch, aiming for simplicity.
130.Sh AUTHORS
131.An Ingo Schwarze Aq Mt schwarze@openbsd.org
132